74 
THE LION HOUSE AT THE ZOO 
in time recover, the effects of over-stimulating food 
taken too early are very noticeable. 1 
In the last cage of the house, at the eastern end, 
took place the celebrated fight in November 1879, 
between a tiger and a tigress, which resulted in the 
death of the latter. An account of this scene, derived 
from Sutton the keeper’s description of what took 
place, is almost the last thing written by Frank 
Buckland, who himself died in the December of the 
next year. The description of the fight as it appears 
in the collection of Notes and Jottings from Animal 
Life , selected and arranged by Buckland shortly before 
his death, and edited by Mr. G. C. Bompas in 1882, 
agrees very closely with the description given verbally 
by Sutton himself. But the most curious point in 
Buckland’s account is, that he apparently forgot that 
the tigress died from her wounds, though he himself 
paid his last visit to the Lion House in order to see the 
suffering animal. The tigress began the quarrel by 
sticking one of her claws through the tiger’s nostril. 
The male tiger immediately pulled back his head with 
a jerk, and the claw cut its way through the nose, 
causing great pain and bleeding. The only people in 
the house at this time — Sunday morning — w^ere Sutton 
the keeper and a Frenchman, and the two tigers at 
once joined battle with very little chance of interference 
by outsiders. The male used his feet, and throwing 
the female down, gave her several heavy blows and 
scratches, and then, having asserted its power, 
1 One has since died. 
